http://www.desmoinesregister.com/app...27/-1/SPORTS01

Paul picks up Minuteman members' support

Des Moines, Ia. � Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul today picked up endorsements from several individual leaders of the Iowa Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-illegal immigration group.

Ron Duncan, the deputy director of the group's Iowa chapter, and Mark Land, Taylor County Minuteman leader, each offered the Texas congressman their personal endorsements.

Craig Halverson, director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Iowa chapter, said the group as a whole will not officially endorse a candidate, but its members are free to back candidates as private citizens.

"As a citizen, I kind of lean towards Ron Paul, but I don't really want to jump out there too strongly because of my position," Halverson said.

Halverson added the bulk of another Iowa grassroots group, Citizens for Tom Tancredo, has also backed Paul.

Tancredo dropped out of the race last week and endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Tancredo's former Iowa campaign chairman, Bill Salier, endorsed Sen. Fred Thompson's bid for the Republican nomination the day after Tancredo withdrew from the race.

Halverson declined to provide the membership numbers of Citizens for Tom Tancredo or the Iowa Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, but described the state's Minuteman branch as one of the nation's fastest-growing chapters.

Duncan said the group exists to preserve the United States' sovereignty.

"We don't even understand anymore what a citizen of the United States is," he said. "And I ask the American citizen: Do we have that will to once again try to establish the boundaries of the United States?"

Paul agreed with the Minuteman position that insecure borders and illegal immigration threatens U.S. sovereignty.

�National sovereignty to me is very important because our rights come from our Constitution," he said. "If we undermine our own government, we undermine our individual rights. I see this as very important (to) defend our freedoms.�